


World of Ruin

by ThatGuy62



Category: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy I
Genre: Alternate Universe, Flash Fic, Gen, Vaguely Dissidia related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:13:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27444676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatGuy62/pseuds/ThatGuy62
Summary: After defeating Chaos, the Warriors of Light awaken to see that the world has undergone some unexpected changes...
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	World of Ruin

**Author's Note:**

> This was part of something else, but then I wanted to explore the line of thought of how the FFI Light Warriors would react if they suddenly ended up in World B from Dissidia. So here's a brief oneshot about their thoughts.  
> Note that the Warriors of Light are based on their Memory of Heroes portrayals, including their english names.

Zauver did not know what he expected to wake up to.

Heck, he did not know if he expected to wake up, at least in a way that confirmed that he somehow did not die.

Whatever he expected, it was certainly not to wake up in a desolate wasteland. All around him were nothing but ruins and dead earth.

For a brief moment, he thought that he was not truly alive and was merely in some sort of twisted hell, which would have been a _wonderful_ reward for risking his neck to save the world. Then he looked closely at ruins around him as well as their proximity to the ocean. They felt… familiar. Disturbingly familiar.

It suddenly hit him why everything looked so familiar. This was Pravoka, the port town where the Warriors of Light defeated the annoyingly arrogant pirate Bikke and his crew. Zauver even recognized the port where the ship that the Warriors of Light won used to be moored.

That fact sank to the very pit of his stomach.

So… that was it then? The Warriors of Light failed and the world lay in ruin? But that doesn’t make sense! The world wasn’t like this when the Warriors left the present, so Garland couldn’t have done it! ...Could he? Was this the future of the world and he was somehow banished to it? But then, what of Setro, Flora and Teol?

The Hell option was still on the table, but Zauver didn’t find that thought to be very comforting.

* * *

Flora wandered the ruins surrounding her in a state of shock.

Melmond, the town closest to the Crystal of Earth… and the first to experience the rotting of the Earth, due to the influence of the Lich. The Warriors of Light had eventually arrived at the town, successfully defeated the Lich and his vampire minion and restored the Crystal of Earth’s light. It was assumed, with the crystal restored, that the land would be restored as well.

That assumption was clearly incorrect.

Not only was the land _still_ corrupted, but Melmond itself was completely destroyed. Whatever land had not rotted away was outright dead, lacking any shade of green, but instead a dull grey.

And to think that everything was looking okay before the Warriors of Light went to the past.

 _“Is this punishment for our failure_ ?” Flora asked herself, too broken to even shed tears. “ _Did we cause this?_ ”

There was no one around to answer.

* * *

Teol awoke amidst some burned out ruins. Initially disoriented, he quickly came to realize that his surroundings were unnervingly similar to Elfheim, the kingdom nestled in the Elven snowlands. The Warriors of Light had briefly helped out the village, finding a cure for the sleep spell that the prince was under.

Teol looked around him. Snow dotted the landscape, covering the long-derelict remains of the kingdom. Nobody else was around.

A sense of dread began creeping up within the black mage. He did not know what happened after he fell to Garland, but something told him that this was not right. He couldn’t have woken up any time shortly after the battle because the fiends systematically destroyed the world over thousands of years. The ruins around him were too similar to the present to be dismissed easily. Besides, he and his companions killed the fiends before returning to the past.

No. Something else had to have done this.

But what? 

Teol could not think of anything. And that terrified him.

* * *

Setro stared at the sight before him in dumbstruck horror. He could not believe what he was seeing.

“But… how? This doesn’t make any sense…”

The warrior fell to his knees, tears falling from his eyes. The environment around him was familiar; It was where he and his friends met the king of Cornelia and began their quest as Warriors of the Light.

Only now, the kingdom and its people were no more. All that remained was destruction, relics of the once great kingdom that no longer existed.

Setro felt lost. He had been the last one standing against the transformed Garland and had defeated him with the power of the crystals. And yet, while he had expected to awaken in another world, whether it be the present or a new one, he did not expect to awaken in a world of ruin.

Without his friends.

Was… was all of this his fault? Was Garland’s ascent to godhood, his corruption of the guardians into the fiends, the world’s drift to destruction… Was all of it inevitable? Did removing the power-mad Garland somehow lead to an even larger crisis?

But then… If this was the world’s destiny and preventing it led to further catastrophe… Why do the Warriors of Light exist? 

Setro mournfully looked around him and noticed something peculiar. Looking behind him, he spotted a large, clear tower in the distance, shining like a glimmer of light in the oppressive darkness.

That tower did not exist when Setro and his friends initially arrived at Cornelia, nor does he remember seeing such a structure at any point.

Setro stood up and faced the tower. He did not know what it symbolized. Was it a haven for the people displaced by whatever happened here? Was it something else? Setro did not know for sure, but he did recognize that the structure appeared to double as a beacon for this blighted world. Something within him- the light of the crystals, perhaps- told him to go there.

Spurred by his curiosity Setro began to approach the tower. He was certain he would get answers there. Answers to which questions, he did not know, but answers nonetheless.

Still, was this an epilogue to the previous adventure? Or the prelude to a new one…?

**Author's Note:**

> I do have ideas for a followup plotline, but only vaguely. The other thing I was working on is connected, kinda.  
> All I'll say right now is that it's based on an implication throughout Memory of Heroes and the Souls of Chaos dungeons.


End file.
